


The Second Law of Thermodynamics

by xylophones



Series: Zero Gravity 'verse [2]
Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Aliens, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Space, Families of Choice, Friendship, Hijinks & Shenanigans, M/M, Mutual Pining, Oblivious Katsuki Yuuri, Outer Space, Pining, Pre-Relationship, Star Trek AU, Starfleet, Starfleet Academy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-12
Updated: 2017-06-23
Packaged: 2018-11-13 01:56:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 11,373
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11174601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xylophones/pseuds/xylophones
Summary: “What do you mean there are no parks on space stations?” Yuuri blinks up at him innocently. “Where do you walk your dogs?”He’s so adorable it should be illegal. Yuuri should come with a warning sign.A throwback to their Academy days.





	1. Entropy

**Author's Note:**

> the promised second part to this universe!! sorry it took me so long y'all i'm trying i swear

i.

Yuuri doesn't go home during the holidays. 

Viktor asks him why he doesn't and he gives a different answer every time: not enough money for a ticket, too busy with his internship with a professor, wanted to keep Phichit company because he's not going home. 

Viktor offers to pay for a ticket, to cover for Yuuri at his internship, to temporarily move into Phichit and Yuuri's apartment. Yuuri refuses him every time. 

It's not that he's ungrateful that Viktor is willing to bend over backwards to help him out. Yuuri is touched. He's never had a friend as  _ enthusiastic  _ as Viktor. Even back home in Hasetsu, Yuuri, Yuuko, and Takeshi has been much more lowkey. A tight knit trio, but less loud about it. Yuuri finds that he really,  _ really _ likes being friends with Viktor. He, Chris, and Phichit are very vocal about their support for him. 

Yuuri doesn't know if he can go home to Hasetsu’s quiet evenings and empty streets. He's not sure he can go home and tell his parents about how he's best friends with some of the most accomplished Starfleet cadets while he's just struggling to keep up. Last week Phichit earned a perfect score on their organic chemistry midterm. 

So, Yuuri stays in San Francisco. He goes on joyrides in Makkachin with Viktor. He treats Phichit out to his favorite Thai food place to celebrate the end of the semester. He sleeps over at Chris’s place and plays drunk board games and ignores calls from his sister. 

“Yuuri!” Viktor calls. He knocks on the wall next to the keypad instead of just entering the guest code that Yuuri gave him. He's been in love with the idea of manual doors ever since Yuuri mentioned he grew up with basically nothing automatic. “Let's go!”

“I’m coming!” 

“Ooh,” Phichit pokes his head out of his room and wiggles his eyebrows. “Where are you two going?” 

“Out,” Yuuri says. He grabs his backpack and shoves his sneakers onto his feet. 

“I’m not invited?”

“Nope!” 

“Is Chris coming?” 

“No.”

“Will you be back before our lab in two days?”

“Maybe,” Yuuri answers. “Okay, bye, Phichit!”

Yuuri practically sprints out the door and almost bowls over Viktor, who's leaning casually against the doorframe. His hair his perfectly styled, parted dramatically to the left in a silver waterfall that cascades down his face and obscures one eye. He's cuts a devastating figure with his broad shoulders and long legs, wearing his pastel pink flight jacket. Yuuri is a goner. 

“So,” he clears his throat, peering up into Viktor’s pretty blue eyes, “where are you taking me today?”

A couple days ago Viktor flew them over Las Vegas to watch the lights glitter below them, a sparkling jewel in the middle of a barren desert. Last week Viktor took him to Mexico City and they ate street food and visited the space center there. The week before that Viktor flew them all the way up to Canada to watch the Northern Lights. 

“New York,” Viktor says with a dazzling smile. 

This is, apparently, a thing they do now. Since meeting him late last semester, Viktor has literally swept Yuuri off his feet. He feels a little bit like he’s in a movie. A gorgeous, funny, genius pilot suddenly becomes his best friend and takes him to new, exciting places every week? That doesn’t happen in real life. Not to people like Yuuri. Yuuri’s life is made up of textbooks and homesickness and Starfleet regulations. He doesn’t belong amongst top pilot, Viktor Nikiforov, and youngest admit to Starfleet, Phichit Chulanont,  and future valedictorian Christophe Giacometti. 

“Let’s go.”

“I’m so excited! I read that New York was the first Earth city to install a transporter pad to beam people up to their starships. Is that true?”

“I don’t know.”

“What?” he fake gasps. “The great Katsuki Yuuri  _ doesn’t know _ ?”

“I don’t know everything, Vitya.”

“Could’ve fooled me, Mr. Top Student.”

Yuuri rolls his eyes. Top student? As if. Yuuri is just treading, trying to keep his head above the water.

“You know what I do know? I know that you’re annoying and that every second we’re still here is a second we could be in New York.”

In less than an hour, they’re up in the air. Viktor sets their course and then switches Makkachin to autopilot. Yuuri tries not to think about how much time they spend alone together or what that means for his rapidly growing, ill-advised, monumental crush. 

 

ii.

Yuuri’s favorite place in the world is the co-pilot seat of Viktor’s jet. He likes watching Viktor flip switches and read gauges. He likes watch Viktor wrangle this hunk of steal and combustible fuel like it’s easier than breathing. 

He likes looking down. It makes him feel a little less small. 

 

iii.

The summer after freshman year, Yuuri finds himself homeless. 

Phichit goes back to Thailand to visit his family and because he scores this amazing internship working at a water purification plant there. He promises Yuuri that they’ll go apartment hunting as soon as he gets back, a good two weeks before the first day of classes. 

Viktor offers his couch, which is nice, but Yuuri can’t sleep on his couch for the entire summer. That and Chris is his roommate and Yuuri has no interest spending the entire summer lying awake on the couch while who knows what happens in Chris’s room. 

(Two nights into his stay Yuuri thinks he hears a parrot screech and the next morning two people with beautifully feathered skin leave Chris’s bedroom. Yuuri  _ really _ doesn’t want to know.)

So Yuuri packs up everything he owns, all two suitcases of it, and ends up on Professor Celestino’s doorstep. 

Professor Celestino has a  _ reputation _ around the Academy. He gives out the nastiest finals and grades like a demon. He’s very intimidating, with his tall figure and long sleek hair and sharp jawline. He can also smell bullshit from a mile away and if you write a paper the night before it’s due he can always tell. His organic chemistry class meets not in a lecture hall, but in the fifth circle of hell. Before he settled down into his comfortable teaching job he was the captain of the fastest patrol ship in the fleet, the Andrea Doria. 

He also has a soft spot for Yuuri. 

“Katsuki,” he says gruffly when he opens the door to Yuuri standing on his porch with his suitcases and his ratty, Starfleet Science Division sweatshirt. Then his face breaks into a grin. 

“Hey, Professor,” Yuuri says, smiling sheepishly. “Is it alright if I stay with you for a bit?”

“Come right in! And I told you, we’re off campus so you don’t have to call me professor, kid.”

“Alright,” Yuuri grins, “Ciao Ciao.”

Celestino groans. “I swear if Phichit’s nickname catches on I’m failing the both of you.”

Yuuri explains his situation in between cuddles with Celestino’s excitable corgi, Mack, and bites of Celestino’s amazing homemade zucchini pasta. Celestino gifts Yuuri with a spare house key and the guest bedroom upstairs, which is easily three times the size of his dorm. 

Every morning Yuuri fights Celestino for first use of the bathroom (“This hair takes  _ effort _ kid!”) and the chance to take Mack for her morning walk. Celestino’s house is a tiny, ancient Victorian facing the ocean, pastel blue and delicate and decked out with the highest tech available. Mack has an automatic doggie door that responds only to her voice. His kitchen is all wood and yellow ochre paint but underneath the humble, rustic aesthetic is enough wiring to power a small starship. His shower has more capabilities than Yuuri’s smartphone. 

“Is this what you do with all the money Starfleet pays you?” Yuuri asks him one day. “You spend it on voice activated sinks and a doghouse with heated floors?”

“Well, what else am I supposed to spend it on?”

“I don’t know,” Yuuri shrugs, shoveling Celestino’s weird Kale based pancakes into his mouth. “I just assumed you spent most of it on hair products?”

“Starfleet paid me a lot of money to protect their research vessels from Klingons. I’m going to spend every cent making sure my dog lives the best life she can live.”

“You shouldn’t spoil her so much,” Yuuri says, sneaking Mack bits of his breakfast. She’s the best dog.

“I’ll spoil her all I want,” Celestino says, also feeding Mack bits of his breakfast. Mack woofs happily. 

It’s summer break but apparently that doesn’t matter when you’re living with a world renowned professor. Viktor leaves for two weeks to visit his mom and Admiral Yakov on the space station he grew up on. Chris goes with him of course, being his adopted brother, which leaves Yuuri stranded an ocean away from home with none of his friends. He ends up just trailing Celestino as he supervises the various scientific studies going on at the Academy. 

“We’re testing algae based nutrition packets in the Franklin lab today,” Celestino says. “Be our taste tester?”

Yuuri wrinkles his nose. “I’ll pass.”

“Alright.” Celestino shrugs. “I need you to help out with the carbon tubes study anyway. None of these children know how to use a microscope, how were they even admitted? Can you make sure they don’t blow up my very nice, very expensive electron microscopes? They’re new.”

“Ciao Ciao, they’re not children. They’re Starfleet officers in training.”

“They're children,” Celestino says. “Why can’t they be more like you? You know how to use a microscope. These children are so frustrating, I was never so incompetent in my youth.”

“In your youth?” Yuuri says. “Oh, you mean during the Mesozoic era? I didn’t know they had microscopes back then.”

“Is that anyway to talk to your professor?!” Celestino gasps, mock hurt. “I’ll fail you, Katsuki, don’t think I won’t.”

“You’re not my professor anymore, I passed your class!”

The days go by in a blur of beach walks with Mack and Celestino and supervising interns at the lab. A lot of the interns ask him how he got on Celestino’s good side and he always responds with “honestly, I was the only one to show up to his office hours and he kind of adopted me?” He really doesn’t understand why everyone’s so afraid of him. Celestino looks mean but he’s actually a big softie. 

As soon as Viktor’s back in town, he kidnaps Yuuri. 

“Yuuri,” Celestino calls from downstairs. “Your delinquent pilot friend is here to see you.”

Yuuri shuts his laptop and grabs his backpack, giving Mack a pat on the head as an apology for disturbing her nap. He races down the stairs. 

“Yuuri!”

“Vitya!”

Viktor looks just like he did when he left, but with more pronounced eye bags. He smiles at Yuuri from the doorway, the only thing stopping him from rushing inside and enveloping Yuuri in a bear hug is Celestino blocking his path. Yuuri nudges him out of the way and wraps his arms around Viktor’s middle. 

“How was your trip?”

“I’ll tell you about it later,” Viktor says into Yuuri’s hair. “Let’s fly.”

Yuuri promises Celestino that he’ll be home by dinner but Celestino just waves a hand and reminds Yuuri that he’s an adult with no curfew. He shoots Viktor a suspicious look and ruffles Yuuri’s hair fondly before shutting the door behind them. 

“I don’t know why he doesn’t like me,” Viktor says. He wraps an arm around Yuuri’s shoulders, as if now that they’re together again he can’t stand to not be touching Yuuri. 

“It’s because you keep trying to get me to abandon science and join the piloting program,” Yuuri says. He gets into the passenger seat of Viktor’s car, pink and sleek and unnecessarily glittery. 

“Your talents are wasted! You should be flying with me.”

Yuuri rolls his eyes. 

On the way to the Academy hangar Yuuri fills in Viktor on his work in the labs. They tried to video chat while Viktor was on the Artemis space station but the connection was bad and seeing Viktor looking washed out and less lively on screen just made Yuuri miss him even more. Yuuri tries not to think about how hard it’s going to be once Viktor graduates and they can’t see each other anymore. 

“Makka!” Viktor cries as soon as the custom painted jet is in sight. He flings himself forward, wrapping his arms around a wing and smashing his face up against the metal. 

Viktor missed Makkachin just as much as he missed Yuuri, evidently. 

“Vitya, come on, get your suit on,” Yuuri calls, heading towards the locker room. “I have some new flight patterns I want to test out.”

Viktor drives Yuuri home later, still flushed and buzzing from the adrenaline of flying. Yuuri can’t stop giggling, he’s just so happy to be around his best friend again. They almost died twice but most of Yuuri’s flight patterns were a success and he can’t wait to test them out on the Grand Prix obstacle test once school starts up again. He teases and laughs and wishes the drive home would never end.

Eventually, they pull up in front of Celestino’s house. Viktor kills the engine and turns to Yuuri, still laughing about something dumb that Viktor had said a couple minutes ago. 

“Hey,” he says, soft all of a sudden. Behind him, the summer sun sets over the water. “I missed you.”

“It was only two weeks.”

“I know, but I still missed you.”

“I missed you, too, Vitya,” Yuuri admits. 

Viktor fiddles with his keys. “I––” he starts, then stops again. 

Yuuri waits for him patiently, framed with the soft pastel blues and purples of twilight, the cooling pavement of the city around them. Yuuri wonders when he started thinking of San Francisco as home, and why he didn’t realize it until after Viktor came back. 

“I haven’t been sleeping well,” Viktor says quietly, “without a goodnight text from you, like we usually do? That’s weird, sorry.”

“It’s not weird,” Yuuri says, biting his lip. “I kept turning to the side to say something to you before I realized that you weren’t there.”

“Space is very lonely,” Viktor says, “even with Chris and my mother and Uncle Yakov and my little brother, Yuri. It’s lonely up there.”

“It’s lonely down here, too,” Yuuri says. “I think loneliness is something that follows you everywhere.”

“Not here,” Viktor says, shaking his head, “not with you.”

Yuuri wants to ask about what VIktor was like before he met him but he’s afraid of the answer. Instead he asks Viktor if he wants to stay for dinner. 

“Ah.” He winces. “Better not. Professor Celestino won’t like that.”

Yuuri waves a hand. “Ciao Ciao doesn’t hate you, otherwise he’d never let me fly with you.”

“It’s still weird that you live with him,” Viktor says. “I heard he feeds failed students to the carnivorous plants in his basement.”

“He grows zucchinis and tomatoes,” Yuuri says. “Also, he’s kind of a mess. He’s working on a million different studies and he forgets to eat if I don’t remind him. His hair clogs the drain all the time.”

“See?” Viktor says, grimacing. “Weird.”

“Alright, alright,” Yuuri says, rolling his eyes. “I better head in now. Night, Vitya.”

Yuuri gets out and waves to Viktor as he drives away, watching his horrible pink car roll down the street and out of sight. He enjoys the cool air for a minute on the porch before he unlocks the door and goes inside. 

“Oh, good, you didn’t die,” Celestino greets, popping his head out from the kitchen. His ponytail swings behind him like a pendulum. “I made minstrone.”

After dinner Yuuri takes Mack on a walk by the beach. He grabs her harness and electronic leash but he doesn’t bother putting them on her. She knows the area better than he does, and she’d never stay too far from him. She’s very protective.

They arrive at the beach, a full five minutes walk away, just as the sky is settling into dusk. There’s enough light to see by but the low light casts a certain vibe over the beach. The water looks dark and moody, the sky clouded and mysterious.

“We should’ve gone to the indoor park,” Yuuri says to Mack. 

Mack doesn’t seem to think so. As soon as her paws touch the sand, she’s off. She runs around in circles, chasing seagulls and dancing around piles of kelp. Yuuri stands and watches her play with a piece of driftwood. 

He’s happy here. 

He’s happier than he was in Hasetsu, though sometimes he’s so homesick that he seriously considers dropping out of school and moving back home to work in the onsen. He has a good life here, though it’s not always the best.

It’s  _ hard _ being the only naturally born student currently enrolled at Starfleet Academy. It’s not the curriculum that’s difficult; Yuuri’s been preparing for Starfleet level courses for most of his life. His training with Minako-sensed was very thorough. The rough part is his classmates. 

Yuuri sighs and kicks at some sand. 

No one’s said anything negative to him. In fact, most people are excessively nice to him. All his teachers are very encouraging. But it seems like anytime Yuuri does something well or scores just slightly above the class average, everyone’s so surprised. Like they weren’t expecting him to be doing so well. As if Yuuri didn’t go through the same admissions process as everyone else. If anything he had to be  _ twice _ as good to even be considered. It makes him so mad. He’s use to doubting himself but when everyone around him is doubting him too it’s harder to convince himself to keep trying.

Mack, as if sensing Yuuri’s plummeting mood, comes bounding back to him, barking cheerfully. She nudges at his calves, trying to push him towards the water. 

“Mack, it’s night time, we can’t swim.” Yuuri chuckles fondly. “Ciao Ciao will be so mad if we come back wet.”

Mack boofs softly. She continues headbutting Yuuri’s legs until he gives in, stumbling into the surf and shrieking as the ice cold water makes contact with his bare skin. He tries to roll up the legs of his pants more but it’s too late; the edges are soaked through with sea water. 

“It’s freezing! Why did I let you talk me into this?”

Mack bounces up and down excitedly. 

“You’re a menace,” Yuuri says. He reaches down to splash Mack with some water. She barks happily. 

“You’re right,” Yuuri says. “It’s not all bad. I have you and Ciao Ciao and Chris and Phichit and….”

_ And Viktor. _

“I like surprising him,” Yuuri tells Mack. “It’s different with him.  _ He’s _ different.”

A large wave rolls in and crashes into them, sending Mack rolling. She gets up quickly, barking and shaking out her fur. She’s the most precious creature Yuuri has ever met. 

“I know, I’ll tell him how I feel eventually,” Yuuri says. “Someday. Before he graduates, I promise.”

“ _ Woof! _ ”

“Okay, that’s enough for today. We should get home before Ciao Ciao accuses me of trying to kidnap you again.”

Mack doesn’t want to leave the beach so Yuuri just scoops her up, ignoring how the front of his shirt is immediately soaked. She wriggles around a little until she’s comfortable, nestled into the cradle of Yuuri’s arms, panting up at him with her tongue lolling. Yuuri boops their noses together and then sets off back home. 

 

iv.

Phichit gets back from Thailand looking sun warmed and revitalized. He has a million stories about his siblings and half his suitcase is souvenirs that he bought for Yuuri and Celestino. He decides to share Yuuri's room at Celestino’s place while they apartment hunt. 

“You’ve been holed up in San Francisco all summer,” Phichit says over breakfast one day. “Let’s go somewhere!”

“Where?” Yuuri asks. He deposits a fresh pancake onto Phichit’s plate and watches in amazement as he immediately devours it. At this rate, there won’t be enough batter for Yuuri and Celestino.

“We can take a train down to Los Angeles.”

“You just want to go to that star map museum,” Yuuri says, shaking his head. He flips another pancake. “You can’t fool me, Chulanont, I see right through you.”

“The Ptolemy Astrological Museum of Cartography is the coolest thing on this side of the world! Plus we can visit the xeno botanical gardens while we’re there. How do you feel about leaving on Friday, so Ciao Ciao can come with us?”

“I can’t, I have a––” Yuuri wrinkles his nose–– “ _ photo shoot. _ ”

Phichit stops chewing. He swallows and takes a deep breath. Yuuri braces himself.

“ _ A photo shoot?! _ ” Phichit screeches. “For  _ what? _ Oh, my god, Yuuri.”

“For Starfleet,” Yuuri says. He winces as Phichit lets out another pterodactyl screech. 

“You have a  _ photo shoot _ for  _ Starfleet _ !” Phichit crows, breakfast forgotten. “Yuuri.  _ Yuuri. _ I cannot believe–– Katsuki Yuuri: the model.”

“I’m not a model, Phichit, stop yelling.”

“Katsuki Yuuri: the light of my life, my best friend, and Starfleet’s new mascot!”

“I’m not Starfleet’s  _ mascot _ ! It’s just a photo shoot to, I don’t know, boost applications from Japan I think. They had me pose with the Japanese flag last time––”

“ _ Last time? _ There have been other photoshoots and you didn’t tell me? I’m so betrayed!”

“You were in Thailand and I didn’t think it was a big deal,” Yuuri says. “Phichit, please, sit down and  _ stop yelling. _ ”

“Yes, Phichit, stop yelling,” Celestino says, shuffling into the kitchen in a bathrobe with his hair piled on top of his head in a messy bun. “Why are you yelling?”

“Yuuri has a photo shoot for Starfleet! They’re turning him into a mascot! Yuuri, you’re going to be famous, just like Captain Kirk!”

“Oh, yeah,” Celestino says. “They have one of Yuuri’s posters in the teachers lounge in the chemistry building.”

“See? Not a big deal!” Yuuri says, exasperated.

“Fine,” Phichit huffs, finally sitting back down. “I’ll be excited enough for all three of us.”

It really isn’t a big deal. They take pictures of Yuuri around campus, holding calculators and beakers and a million other props. The photographer’s only direction is to “look scientific” so Yuuri adjusts his glasses and tries to look like he belongs on campus and isn’t just fumbling his way to a degree. It’s embarrassing but they pay him well. He figures it’s the least he can do considering Starfleet not only took the big risk of admitting him, but he’s also here on a full ride scholarship. He grits his teeth and poses next to the statue of Rosalind Franklin in the main quad. 

Yuuri refuses to look at the finished products, when they mail him copies of his posters later. He hands them off to Phichit, who cackles gleefully, and forgets all about the photo shoot until the next one. 

Having Phichit around makes everything seem brighter. He helps Yuuri whip the interns into shape and makes sure that both Yuuri and Celestino don’t die of caffeine overdose. 

“What are you two doing? Plotting the end of the world?” Celestino asks, coming up behind them. Phichit and Yuuri are wedged together on the couch, peering at Yuuri’s laptop on the coffee table with Mack’s fluffy corgi body stretched out on their laps. 

“We’re looking at apartment listings,” Yuuri answers, “but all these places are either filthy or the cost of rent is my first born child.”

“You know,” Celestino says casually, “you two could just stay here. I’ll clean out my office for you, Phichit.”

(Yuuri and Phichit live with him until they graduate. He cries when he drops them off to catch their shuttle up to the Enterprise, sniffling about his best students leaving him to deal with incompetent interns all by himself.

“Tell Nikiforov that if anything happens to you two, I’ll feed him to the carnivorous plants in my basement,” Celestino says, pulling them into a bear hug. 

“Okay,” Yuuri says, misty eyed, “Ciao Ciao.”)

 

v.

Sophomore year hits Yuuri like a bullet train. 

It’s Viktor’s last year so they try to beat their own high score on the Grand Prix Flight Test. 

“I want to go down in history,” Viktor says. “Are you sure it’s not too late to convince you to join the flight program?”

Yuuri spends a lot of time sprawled on Viktor’s bed, textbooks spread out in a semicircle around him as if to summon the demons of thermochemistry and kinetics. Viktor usually curls up next to him and naps because he’s a natural genius who never studies and Yuuri hates him for it. Sometimes they’re joined by Phichit and Chris, sometimes Yuuri kidnaps Mack and gives her cuddles while trying to cram an entire semester of calculus into his head. 

“ _ Yuuri!”  _  Viktor whines one night after barging into Yuuri’s room, “you study too much! Come to this party with me.”

“Can’t,” Yuuri says absently. “Paper due.”

“You’re always working on a paper,” VIktor says. “Or a lab report. Or you’re working on notes. Or you don’t want to get up because Mack’s sitting on your lap––”

“I’m not cruel enough to make her move,” Yuuri cuts in. Viktor is not going to stop annoying him until Yuuri gives in. Yuuri was lost the moment VIktor opened his mouth. He sighs and swivels in his desk chair to face Viktor, who’s pouting like a kicked puppy.

“Okay, tell my why I should go out with you tonight when I have this  _ very _ important paper due tomorrow.”

‘“The second law of thermodynamics--”

“Vitya,” Yuuri warns, “don’t you  _ dare _ use thermo against me right now.”

“--states that the total entropy of an isolated system can only increase over time,” Viktor continues on anyway, because he’s  _ actually horrible _ . “Which means! You need to go out with us tonight. To increase entropy.”

“ _ What? _ ” Yuuri asks, pinching the bridge of his nose.

‘You need to come out and have fun,” Viktor says slowly, like he’s explaining something to a child, “because of entropy.”

“That doesn’t make any sense. Like at all.”

“ _ Entropy _ , Yuuri.”

“No, that’s not–– You know what?” Yuuri sighs and takes off his glasses. “Yeah, okay. Let’s go.”

“Wait, really?”

“Come on, before I change my mind.”

“Great! Yes! I’m so excited, I’ll text Chris to pick us up!”

“Let me just go put on my contacts and we’ll head out.”

Yuuri intends to just have a drink or two and then take a Light Cab home to continue writing his paper. He glances mournfully over at his laptop. An hour max, he silently promises it, and he’ll come back and they can spend all night together. 

An hour. Max.

 

Three hours later, Yuuri is shirtless and sloshed on some type of Par'ommuan alcohol that sparked like lightning as it went down his throat. He’s clinging to a stripper pole, attempting to out dance a catlike woman wearing nothing but some intricate face paint. He’s done body shots off no less than five different people. There’s a girl with thick armor-like scales seated in the corner and she’s holding his pants hostage.

“Entropy,” Viktor says, shoving a credit in the waistband of Yuuri’s boxers.

“That’s–– That’s not even what that  _ means _ ,” Yuuri slurs. He flips himself on the pole so he’s dangling upside down, suspended by his thigh muscles and sheer force of will. He decides that gravity doesn’t apply to him today.

“ _ Entropy _ ,” Viktor insists. And then he slumps face first onto Chris’s chest.

Yuuri  _ does _ end up writing his paper that night but when he tries to edit it–– sober–– the next morning, he can’t figure out why he mentions entropy so much in a paper about mid-twenty-second century Earth politics.

 

vi.

Viktor flies them out to the desert so they can stargaze without all the light pollution from the city. He brings blankets and a picnic basket. Yuuri brings his portable telescope and a sketchbook. 

“You draw?” Viktor asks, raising an eyebrow when Yuuri pulls it out of his backpack. 

“It’s a useful skill to have,” Yuuri says, a tad defensive. “In case I encounter a new plant species when I’m out there.”

“You know, Yuuri, you can do some things just for yourself,” Viktor tells him gently. “Not everything about you needs to be about making you the best Starfleet officer. You can just do things because you enjoy them.”

Yuuri tips his head back and looks up. He traces the constellations with his eyes. 

“I don’t know who I am outside of Starfleet,” Yuuri admits. 

“I do,” Viktor says. He reaches over and takes Yuuri’s hand slowly, giving Yuuri enough time to pull back if he wants to. “You’re Katsuki Yuuri, top of your class, physics  _ and _ chemistry genius, yeah, but you’re also a  _ person _ . You cry over pictures of dogs, your favorite food is your mom’s katsudon and you love sunflowers. You love the beach but you hate to swim. You get your mom to send you boxes of your favorite green tea from Japan because you think American tea is a crime.”

Yuuri turns his gaze away from the stars. Viktor’s eyes are round and bright, fixed on Yuuri like he’s the center of the universe.

“You’re not just Katsuki Yuuri, Starfleet’s brightest cadet,” Viktor says, sweeping his thumb across Yuuri’s knuckles. “You’re also Katsuki Yuuri, my best friend.”

“ _ Vitya _ ,” Yuuri whispers. He launches himself at Viktor, tackling him into a hug and sending them sprawling across their picnic blanket.

In the cool desert night, with the stars stretched out above him and Viktor steady and warm beneath him, Yuuri allows himself to be loved.


	2. Multiplicity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> sorry!! i know i promised this earlier so thank you for being patient!!  
> A big big big thank you to my beta, [Jackie](http://jackcatmeow.tumblr.com/)!!!

i.

Viktor spends the majority of his third year at Starfleet falling in love with Katsuki Yuuri. 

(That’s a lie. He falls in love with Yuuri the moment they meet; he spends junior year  _ adjusting _ to being in love with Yuuri.)

Everything has always come easy to Viktor. He barely needs to study, he can fly better than anyone in the galaxy, except for his mom, and he makes friends easier than breathing. Viktor is on track to complete is six year piloting program in four years. He has a plan in place to command his own starship in five years.

Viktor is not good at being in love. 

It shouldn’t be difficult. Yuuri and Viktor clicked instantly. Viktor is the most at ease when he’s with Yuuri. It’s just, everytime he tries to be charming and smooth, Yuuri does something cute and Viktor loses all his chill. 

They decide to attend San Francisco Pride because Yuuri has never been to a Pride festival and Viktor is gay and in love. 

“I don’t know, it was never a big deal when I was growing up,” Yuuri says on the car ride there. “I mean, Mari had a series of girlfriends. Our neighbors are in a polyamorous relationship. I had a boyfriend in high school.”

Viktor latches onto that last bit immediately. “You had a boyfriend?” 

“Yeah, for a year, I think?” Yuuri shrugs. “It wasn’t serious.”

Viktor takes a second to feel bad for Yuuri’s high school boyfriend, who he imagines is still probably heart broken. 

“So,” Viktor says slowly, the picture of casual. “Have you ever wanted to have another boyfriend? Maybe someone a little older with fantastic hair?”

“Boys are a distraction,” Yuuri says, face flushed. 

“Some boys aren’t,” Viktor argues. He tries not to come off as too desperate and fails miserably. “Some boys will help you out with your physics projects.”

“Really? Where are these mysterious helpful boys?” 

Viktor doesn’t know if Yuuri is purposefully swerving him or if he’s really just oblivious. Either way, Viktor is starting to feel a little pathetic, so he switches the subject. 

“Our space station use to celebrate Pride,” Viktor says. He pulls their car up to a parking meter. “It was a blast. My mom would tell me stories of all the people she met before she met my dad.”

“Yeah?” 

“Mhmm,” Viktor says. “She’s broken many hearts of many people of many genders across the galaxies.”

“Your mom sounds a lot like you.”

“I’m the better pilot!”

They walk to meet Phichit and Chris near one of the train stations. On the way there, Yuuri somehow ends up covered in glitter. Viktor thinks he looks dazzling. 

“Yuuri!” Phichit exclaims. “You’re not dressed up enough!”

Yuuri peers down at his outfit. He’s wearing jeans and a grey shirt with a rainbow Starfleet logo on it. Viktor thinks he looks good, but then again, Viktor would think Yuuri looks good in anything. Or nothing.  _ Oh no, _ he thinks, now is  _ really _ not the time to be thinking about Yuuri wearing nothing.  

“It’s rainbow?” Yuuri says, furrowing his brow. “I thought it was enough?”

Phichit shakes his head. “My poor boy, this is why we live together. If I had been home I never would have let you leave the house like this. Come here, let me put some eyeliner on you.”

They stand by and wait while Phichit applies copious amounts of sparkly eyeliner and bright eyeshadow to Yuuri’s already gorgeous face. Chris pulls out facepaint from who knows where and starts painting a blue, purple, and pink striped heart on Yuuri’s cheek. 

After that the day becomes a blur of watching Chris flirt with a multitude of people and trying not to get too distracted by how devastatingly attractive Yuuri is.

(It’s a losing battle.)

Now that Viktor thinks about it, this year can just be summed up by him trying–– and failing–– not to be distracted by Yuuri.

 

ii.

Viktor and Chris go to a party, because Viktor is invited to every party and Chris loves free alcohol. 

They’re fashionably late, as is Viktor’s style. The party rages on around them, held in a frat house that Viktor guarantees will be destroyed by the end of the night. He plans to make his escape before then. 

Viktor makes a beeline for the refreshments table. He drinks steadily while he socializes, never talking to the same person for more than ten minutes. He loses Chris to the pulse of the makeshift dance floor and loses his mind to the endless stream of alcohol.

An hour in, someone taps Viktor on the elbow, and he turns to find a beautiful stranger peering up at him, mysterious and seductive in the low light.

This is when Viktor realizes he’s in trouble. 

There’s a beautiful stranger in front of Viktor and all Viktor can think about is the way Yuuri looks in the passenger seat of his jet. He’s at party, the center of attention, and the only thing on Viktor’s mind is Yuuri’s beautiful brown eyes, so dark they’re almost black. All he can picture is the flush on Yuuri’s face whenever Viktor compliments him and the cadence of his voice and how his laugh cuts through the never ending buzz in Viktor’s head and soothes his soul. 

“Oh no. Oh  _ no _ ,” Viktor says outloud. He flashes a quick, apologetic smile to the beautiful stranger and then goes to seek out Chris. 

He finds him grinding in between two lovely people, one of them with pretty dark skin and iridescent scales and the other with a mass of hair that moves like they’re underwater. He grabs Chris by the arm and drags him towards the quietest corner of the party he can find, the kitchen. 

“Chris,” Viktor slurs urgently, “Chris, Chris, Christophe! Chris!”

“Vitya, what is it?” Chris pouts, crossing his arms. “I was having fun.”

“Sorry! Sorry, but this is important!” Viktor says. He grabs Chris’s arm, so he knows how important this is. “Chris, I love him.”

Chris frowns. “The guy you were talking to earlier? I mean he was cute, but I thought you liked––”

“Not him.” Viktor shakes his head. The room spins. “Yuuri. I love Yuuri.”

“Um, I know?” Chris smiles. “You’ve been saying that all semester? I don’t know why you think this is a surprise.”

“Y-Yeah,uh , I’ve been saying it–– but, Christophe, I actually  _ mean _ it. Like I really, actually, one-hundred-percent mean it! I’m in love with him.”

“I thought you said he wasn’t interested?”

“He’s not,” Viktor says miserably. “Or at least I don’t think he is. He’s–– He knows, I think. How I feel. But he doesn’t–– he hasn’t said anything.”

“Well, have  _ you _ said anything?”

Viktor pauses. “No.”

“ _ Vitya. _ ”

“You know me, Chris. You’ve hung out with us! I’m not exactly subtle. He probably knows, he just doesn’t see me like that.”

Viktor looks around for a water bottle and downs the entire thing. Suddenly, being drunk doesn’t sound fun anymore. 

Chris’s eyes soften. He sighs and then tugs on Viktor’s arm. 

“Come on, let’s go home.” 

“I’m too young and beautiful to be in love, Chris,” Viktor says. 

Viktor always thought he’d be like his mom: galavanting around the universe, meeting a different person every week. He thought he’d have a list of exes a mile long, thought he’d experience every kind of attraction out there. He figured he’d settle down eventually, after a long career as Starfleet’s champion captain and with a web of broken hearts strewn across the galaxy. To him, love was a fairytale meant to make children feel less lonely in the vastness of the cosmos. 

And then the universe brought him to Katsuki Yuuri. 

Viktor wouldn’t mind being tied down, if it meant he got to come home to Yuuri. 

He just wishes Yuuri felt the same. 

 

iii.

After his startling revelation that he’s actually,  _ really _ in love with Yuuri, Viktor decides that instead of lamenting his unrequited crush, he’s going to embrace it.

(“I guess I’m a romantic!” Viktor says in the car ride home from the party.

“You’ve always been a romantic,” Chris informs him. “Romantic about yourself.”)

Here’s a fact: it’s very easy to fall in love with Katsuki Yuuri. 

Viktor witnesses it every day. Yuuri will smile at a barista or help someone find a book at the library. He’ll compliment one of Viktor’s classmates on their piloting skills or laugh at someone’s awful joke. It’s like watching a car crash happen in slow motion. Everytime Viktor will flash a sad, knowing smile with them and they’ll share a brief connection, knowing that neither of them will capture Yuuri’s attention the same way he’s captured theirs. 

Yuuri is magnetic. It’s just a part of who he is. Yuuri pulls people towards him naturally, warping the space around him and shifting the fabric of space-time. Viktor is grateful to be pulled into his event horizon. 

“What do you mean there are no indoor parks on space stations?” Yuuri blinks up at him innocently. “Where do you walk your dogs?”

He’s so adorable it should be illegal. Yuuri should come with a warning sign.

“Oh, it’s nothing,” Yuuri says, waving a hand. “I’m just an average Starfleet cadet.”

“Yuuri, they just asked you to attend the  _ Galactic Gala _ as the representative for the  _ entire  _ science division.”

He should come with a large warning sign. With bold, flashing lights.

Yuuri does all these amazing, world-shattering things and then brushes it off like it’s nothing. At first, Viktor thought he was just being modest. After a while, it became pretty apparent that Yuuri genuinely just doesn’t know how incredible he is. 

 

“Where are we?” Yuuri asks. He wraps his jacket around himself securely, burrowing into its warmth and waddling around like the world’s cutest penguin. Viktor is enamored. 

“Manitoba,” Viktor answers. 

Yuuri shoots him a look. “Manitoba is a big province, Vitya.  _ Where _ in Manitoba?”

Viktor’s heart flutters at Yuuri’s use of the nickname. “Churchill.”

“Okay,” Yuuri says, shuffling his feet, “ _ Why _ are we here? It’s freezing.”

“You’ll see in a minute, let me just––” Viktor hauls a small heat generator and a thick, waterproof blanket out of the back of his jet. He fiddles with the controls until the air around it is nice and toasty. “Here, it only works within a five foot radius, so sit down next to it.”

Yuuri plops himself down on the blanket, huddling up to the generator. He looks up at Viktor and pats the space next to him expectantly. 

“Hold on, I brought blankets.” Viktor ducks back into Makkachin and gathers up an armful of the fluffies blankets on Earth, as well as a couple of pillows. 

(Most of the blankets are stolen from Chris, which is why they’re all in ugly neon colors with gaudy prints.) 

Viktor saunters over to Yuuri and dumps the entire pile of bedding on his head. 

“ _ Oof! _ ” Yuuri claws at the fabric in a vain attempt to free himself. It reminds Viktor of the time Phichit put a towel over Mack’s head and they all laughed as she tried to escape “Hey! Vitya, you’re so––  _ oh _ .”

A flash of green light illuminates Yuuri’s face for a split second. Yuuri turns his gaze from Viktor and up onto the night sky. 

“This,” Viktor says, sweeping his arms grandly, “is why we’re here.”

“The Aurora Borealis,” Yuuri whispers, his eyes wide. “Wow, I’ve never–– wow.”

Viktor sits down on next to Yuuri, arranging their blanket nest around them and making sure that Yuuri is tucked in warm and snug. Yuuri is enraptured by the lights, his face turned up, eyes darting around to take in every burst of light. Viktor himself doesn’t actually look up until Yuuri tugs at his sleeve and points upwards, whispering “Vitya,  _ look _ .”

Viktor somehow manages to tear his eyes away from Yuuri to look up. 

G _ raceful _ . It’s the only word Viktor can apply to the lilting dance of light and color playing out above them. The sky is illuminated with gentle washes of green, occasionally broken up by bright flashes of pink, a glowing curtain fading into teal at the edges and billowing against the stars. 

Viktor doesn’t know how long they stay like that, basking in the Northern Lights’ luminescent glow, but eventually he works up the nerve to shift a little closer to Yuuri. He leans in closer and almost squeals in delight when Yuuri drops his head down to rest on Viktor’s shoulder. 

“How did you even know to take us here?” Yuuri asks quietly. 

“I googled ‘Best Things to Do on Earth’ and this was the top one,” Viktor admits. “There’s also an app for tracking the lights, but they’re still unpredictable.”

“I guess we got lucky tonight, huh?” 

Yuuri tips his head back slightly so he can make eye contact with Viktor, smiling softly up at him. Viktor can see the lights reflected in his eyes, the starlight pooling in his irises. 

Viktor wishes so,  _ so _ badly that this was a date because if it was he would lean down and kiss Yuuri right now. 

He swallows down the yearning rising up in his throat, threatening to choke him. He settles for pressing a quick kiss to Yuuri’s forehead, relishing in the flush that spreads across his face. It’s like watching the sunrise. He wraps an arm around Yuuri with the excuse that it’s cold–– never mind the heater running next to them–– and Yuuri snuggles further into his embrace. It’s so close to what Viktor wants, but not quite. That’s okay. Viktor can be content with just this, Yuuri looking soft and affectionate under a shower of starlight, tucked against Viktor’s side like there’s no other place in the entire universe he’d rather be.

Viktor goes back to watching the Northern Lights waltz across the atmosphere, framed by a backdrop of billions of stars just waiting to be explored.  _ This is enough. _

“This planet is so beautiful,” Viktor murmurs. 

Yuuri hums. “Other planets have similar phenomena. It’s nothing special, really. Just charged solar particles hitting gas molecules in the atmosphere. It happens on Jupiter and Saturn too, but it looks a bit different because of the different atmosphere makeup.”

“ _ Yuuri _ ,” Viktor laughs, squeezing his shoulders briefly. “You’re incredible. How do you know so much? You never fail to impress me.” 

“I’m just the average Starfleet student,” Yuuri says. “I like space. Just like everyone else.”

“You don’t really believe that about yourself, do you?” Viktor asks incredulously. “That you’re just like everyone else? Yuuri, I’m not trying to alarm you, but you’re probably the brightest cadet enrolled in the Academy right now.”

“No,” Yuuri says, shaking his head, “I’m nothing special. Not like you and Chris and Phichit. I’m just Yuuri.”

“Nothing special? Yuuri, you’re––”

“Just drop it, Viktor,” Yuuri snaps suddenly. “I don’t want to hear you complimenting me just because we’re friends and you’re trying to be nice. I don’t need your pity. I  _ know _ I’m not the best. You don’t have to try to make me feel better about it.”

Yuuri wriggles out of Viktor’s embrace, turning his face away.

Viktor gapes. “I–– I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you. But Yuuri, I’m not complimenting you out of pity–– I genuinely think you’re amazing.”

Yuuri doesn’t answer. He curls in on himself, as if to shut out the rest of the world.

As if to shut out Viktor.

Suddenly, the Northern Lights don’t seem as beautiful. Instead, they cast a sickly green glow across the landscape. 

“Hey, I’m sorry,” Viktor tries again. He lays a gentle hand on Yuuri’s shoulder. He’s immediately horrified when he hears a sniffle. 

Oh _ ,  _ great _ , _ he made Yuuri  _ cry. _

“Yuuri?” Viktor says, slightly alarmed. “Please,  _ solnyshko _ , talk to me? I’m sorry. D-Do you need some space? Do you want to go home?”

“No,” Yuuri mumbles with his back still to Viktor. “N-No, you don’t need to be sorry. I’m sorry. I-I overreacted. Just give me a minute, I’ll be fine.”

“You shouldn’t bottle up your feelings for my sake. What did I do wrong?”

“Nothing! You didn’t do anything wrong, it’s just–– it’s my own weakness. I need to be stronger.”

“You don’t need to be anything but yourself,” Viktor says softly. He rubs his hand soothingly up and down Yuuri’s back. “Look at me, Yuuri? Can we talk about this?”

Yuuri shuffles back around to face Viktor with his knees tucked up against his chest. He looks so small and fragile, with tears streaming down his face and his lower lip raw from where he’d bitten it while attempting to hold back his sobs. 

“It’s really not your fault,” Yuuri mumbles, wringing his hands. “It’s–– I have this, uh, anxiety thing. Sometimes it makes me think things that I  _ know _ aren’t true and, I guess, I just get really nervous? When people compliment me? Because I, uh, feel like I’m tricking them all into thinking I’m someone I’m not.”

Viktor opens his mouth to assure Yuuri that he  _ is _ every bit as amazing as Viktor says he is but he stops himself. He had told Yuuri he would hear him out, and he’s going to respect what Yuuri’s trying to tell him.

“I don’t see myself the way you see me,” Yuuri continues. “I don’t know how I managed to fool you into thinking I’m this amazing science genius when I’m really just… below average.”

Yuuri stops then and looks up expectantly at Viktor, gauging his reaction. 

“I didn’t know you had an anxiety disorder,” Viktor says carefully. “Is there–– how can I help you?”

Yuuri’s eyes widen. He clears his throat and breaks into a small smile. “That’s not usually the first thing people ask.”

“What? That should be the first thing! I want to be able to help you in anyway I can.”

“Well, I sometimes have panic attacks–– I can teach you how to talk me through one later? If you want? Phichit’s been helping me through them, he probably has some tips–– but I just mostly need you to be patient with me? Sorry, I know I’m not the easiest person to be around.”

“You are my  _ favorite _ person to be around,” Viktor says earnestly, taking Yuuri’s hands in his. “My favorite person in the entire  _ universe _ . In every alternate universe out there, you’re my favorite.”

Yuuri grins at him then, blinding and tear-soaked and ethereal in the blushing light.

“I’m glad you opened up to me,” Viktor sighs, rubbing his thumb across Yuuri’s knuckles. 

“I’m glad you met me in the middle,” Yuuri says.

(They stay there, talking quietly and watching the lights until their heater runs out of power and they’re forced back into the jet, laughing and brushing off the cold Canadian wind. On the flight back home Yuuri falls asleep curled up in the co-pilot’s seat. VIktor looks over at him fondly and thinks:  _ I couldn’t have picked a better person to fall in love with. _ )

 

iv.

During final’s week, Viktor flies Yuuri, Phichit, and Chris out to the California wilderness and the four of them scream until they feel better.

 

v.

The first time Yuuri leaves the Earth’s atmosphere it’s in the passenger seat of Viktor’s jet. 

It’s his first day in zero gravity classes, up in Starfleet’s own Sally Ride Space Station, and because he’s every professor’s favorite he’s been granted special permission to make the trip up with Viktor. Viktor has no reason to be up here, other than the fact that he’s a clingy mess and that when Yuuri asked him it was impossible to say no. 

(Chris will forgive him for the cancelled movie night eventually. This is a momentous occasion for Yuuri and he’s is choosing to spend it with Viktor! He’s honored.) 

Yuuri stops him in the locker room after he’s changed into his flight suit. He looks small and fragile in his borrowed oversized jumpsuit. 

“Viktor,” he says, a nervous lilt to his voice. It’s alarming how Yuuri only needs to say his name and Viktor’s entire world stops. 

“Is everything alright,  _ solnyshko _ ?”

“Um.” Yuuri bites his lip. 

“What’s wrong?”

“I’m–– uh, a little nervous,” Yuuri admits. 

“Do you want me to do another systems’ check? I know she doesn’t look like it but Makkachin is reliable. Or–– if you don’t want to fly with me anymore you can still catch the transport shuttle with everyone else. It’s not too late and I’ll understand! I totally understand, promise!”

“No, that’s not it,” Yuuri says, “I trust you, Vitya. I know you’ll get us there safely.”

Viktor’s heart flutters. He bites down on the urge to beg Yuuri just one last time to be his co-pilot. 

“It’s gonna sound stupid,” Yuuri sighs, “but I’m nervous about leaving Earth. I’ve never been up there before. I mean, I’ve been in the zero gravity simulators and I know what to do. I’m prepared for everything, I just––”

He breaks off with another sigh, wilting a little. 

“It’s not stupid, Yuuri,” Viktor says. He reaches out and pulls Yuuri into a hug. Yuuri is warm pressed up against him, even through the layers of their flight suits and thermals. 

“It is,” Yuuri mumbles against his chest. “You grew up out there, you probably think I’m being ridiculous but you’re just too nice to say it. It’s not a big deal! I know that! I don’t know why I’m getting so worked up about it.”

“I don’t think you’re stupid,” Viktor says firmly. 

“Have you ever heard of a Starfleet officer who’s afraid of space?”

“Actually, Doctor McCoy––”

“That was rhetorical, Vitya, just––” Yuuri grumbles and snuggles further into Viktor's chest–– “let me whine for a little. I’ll work it out of my system in a minute.”

So, Viktor stands there in Starfleet’s frankly disgusting locker room and cradles Yuuri in his arms. He wonders if Yuuri knows how much Viktor likes holding him. He wonders if Yuuri likes  _ being held _ by Viktor. Their height difference means that Yuuri fits perfectly against Viktor; he’s the perfect height to tuck his head under Viktor’s chin, arms wrapped around Viktor’s waist. 

“Okay,” Yuuri says eventually. “Okay, I’m ready.”

“You sure?”

Yuuri nods. “Being around you is very grounding,” he says. “No pun intended.”

Yuuri marches them out of the locker room and suddenly it’s like a switch has been flipped. He doesn’t look fragile in his jump suit anymore; instead, the tight, white suit makes him look regal, ethereal. It’s in the way he carries himself. Yuuri has this habit of pushing down his anxieties and focusing on the task at hand with a single-minded intensity that scares most other cadets and impresses all the Starfleet commanding officers. There’s a difference between the physics beast Yuuri that occupies Viktor’s co-pilot seat during flight tests and the soft, playful Yuuri that Viktor takes out for late night joyrides. 

It’s no matter. Viktor’s hopelessly in love with every side of Yuuri. 

They get in the jet and Viktor prepares everything for lift off, Yuuri reading through the pre-flight checklist next to him.

“Makkachin to flight control, are we good to go?”

“Go ahead Makkachin,” flight control answers, their voice crackling in Viktor’s headset. “Have a safe flight, you two.”

Viktor turns off the Retina display on his helmet. He likes doing the take off manually. It’s how he learned how to fly, nothing but his instincts. Viktor pulls out of Starfleet’s hangar clean and steady. They climb higher and higher until their view of the Academy is eaten up by fluffy clouds. Viktor prepares them to exit the atmosphere, switching fuel sources and raising Makkachin’s shields. A red warning light pops up and Yuuri yelps, hand darting out to grip Viktor’s knee.

“It’s okay!” Viktor squeaks, trying not to spread his legs farther apart like the desperate fool he is. “It’s just reminding us to strap in.”

“Sorry!” Yuuri says, taking his hand back and settling back into his seat. “I was startled.”

“It’s okay! Fine, really! Um, if you want you can––” Viktor holds out his hand–– “squeeze my hand? If you get nervous again.”

“Shouldn’t you be using both hands to pilot?”

“R-Right! Yeah, of course, how silly of me, I’ll just––”

Viktor grips the control wheel so tightly his knuckles turn white. He flushes. He’s so embarrassed that he just tried to hold Yuuri’s hand while also trying to pilot a jet. He’s a walking safety hazard. No,  _ Yuuri _ is a walking safety hazard. Starfleet’s standard flight suits are supposed to make everyone look ugly and rumpled, not like a space prince right out of Viktor’s fantasies. 

Lucky for Viktor, Yuuri is soon distracted by the breathtaking sight of Earth as they straddle the stratosphere. It’s beautiful. No matter how many times Viktor does this, the view never gets old. As most planets go, Earth is fairly pretty from this high up. It’s a vast plane of blue, broken up by cottony white clouds. Viktor once took off from a planet that was all sulfur yellow desert for as far as the eye could see, the horizon an ugly sallow line against the elegant darkness of outer space. Earth is different. It looks like a place to come home to, not a place to leave. 

“Wow,” Yuuri breathes. He presses his face right up to Makkachin’s windows until his breath fogs up the glass. “It’s prettier than in the posters.”

The sun glints along the horizon, catching Yuuri in a stray sunbeam. 

“Gorgeous,” Viktor says. And then he realize that Yuuri is crying. 

“Yuuri?!” He asks, alarmed. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, I––” Yuuri sniffles, laughing a little–– “I’m not upset! It’s just so beautiful up here. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Yuuri’s hair floats around him, inky strands swimming through the air like he’s underwater. His face is flushed a pretty light pink, eyes scrunched closed and mouth twisted up in amusement. The tears cling to his eyelashes and cheeks. He brings a finger up to touch them. 

“I always thought that tears would form perfect spheres and float away from my face,” Yuuri notes, amused. He giggles and brushes the hair out of his eyes, pushing his glasses back down into place. “You know, like in the movies?”

“That doesn’t happen. The movies are a lie.”

“I figured. Surface tension?”

“Surface tension. The tears just stick to your face.”

“It’s less poetic.”

“More scientific, though, and isn’t that what you’re all about?”

Up here in the twilight zone, between the people down on Earth and the people waiting for them up in the stars, Viktor feels closer to home than he’s ever felt before. Here, weightless in his jet with Yuuri next to him, crying because he thought the view was beautiful. Viktor wants to give him more experiences like this;wants to give Yuuri all the beautiful views in the universe.

“Vitya,” Yuuri calls quietly, smiling. 

“Yes?” 

“Thank you.”

Viktor doesn’t know what to say to that, so he doesn’t say anything. He guides Makkachin into the space station’s hangar and lets Yuuri enjoy readjusting to the artificial gravity on board. 

“It’s slightly off,” Yuuri observes. 

“It’s just a little lighter,” Viktor says. “They took an average of the force on everyone’s home planet to find something everyone would be comfortable at. That, and certain species’s biological functions stop working if conditions aren’t right.”

Yuuri looks at him, wide-eyed. “You’re so smart, Vitya. How do you know all that?”

“I grew up on a space station, remember?”

After that, Viktor is basically useless for the rest of the day. Two of Yuuri’s classmates spot them in the hangar and immediately whisk him away to start their project. Viktor hangs around them for a while, watching them wrack up points on their zero gravity tag team obstacle course, but eventually he breaks off to explore the station. He’s never had class up here and he takes a moment to thank his lucky stars because the commute would have been hell. 

Viktor wanders for a while until he eventually walks right into the jaws of the notorious Lilia Baranovskaya. 

“Viktor Nikiforov.” 

Viktor yelps and whirls around, back to the viewing window he’d been staring out of for the past ten minutes. In front of him is Madame Lilia, looking as severe and unforgiving as a black hole. 

(Yakov named a black hole after her once. And he wonders why his marriage fell apart.)

“Madame Lilia, hello!” Viktor eyes her razor sharp claws and armored skin. She’s beautiful, that's undeniable, but she could also decapitate Viktor with just her pinky finger and she doesn't look to be in a good mood right now. 

“I’ve been meaning to speak with you, Viktor.”

“Me?” Viktor squeaks. 

“Will you relax? I am not here to kill you.”

“Sorry, Madame.”

“It’s not your fault,” Madame Lilia says, waving a hand. “It’s Yakov’s influence, I know. They should have sent you to me when you were a child, instead of leaving you to his corruption. I use to be your favorite aunt, you know.”

“I remember.” Viktor smiles hesitantly. “My mom has a picture of the three of us, you, me and Yakov on your old ship.”

“Yes, that piece of junk! I was sure it would collapse and we would all die screaming. We had a lot of fun in that ship, before I was transferred to Earth. Ah, sometimes I miss captaining.”

Viktor was young when Madame Lilia left the station, but he remembers that Yakov use to laugh a lot more when she was around. He remembers that her and his mother would get up to a lot of trouble, though they never took Viktor with them on their adventures. Too dangerous and politically scandalous, his mother said. She and Madame Lilia use to date when they were teenagers, before Viktor’s dad and Yakov, which Viktor thinks is really,  _ really weird. _

Viktor clears his throat. “Um, you had something you wanted to discuss with me?”

“I just wanted to compliment you. You’re on track to graduate early, are you not?”

“Yes, next year, Admiral.”

“Impressive. I’ve also heard you have high ambitions.”

Viktor smiles wryly. “So, you  _ do _ still talk to Yakov.”

“I’ve never stopped talking to Yakov,” Madame Lilia says dismissively. “He’s a fool, but an interesting fool. And he had some very interesting things to say about you.”

“When I visited him over the summer he asked me about my plans.”

“It is true then? You want command of your own starship in five years?” Madame Lilia lets out a low whistle and stalks closer to him, facing the viewing window. She looks out at all the starships docked below them. “You think you can handle that at such a young age?”

“I know I can,” Viktor says, “and with the right crew––”

“Katsuki?” She asks with a sly smile. “A wise choice.”

“I, uh, yes, Yuuri and a couple others––”

“I handpicked his application,” Madame Lilia interrupts him. “I went all the way to Japan to make sure he was Starfleet material before we admitted him. He’s very high achieving and he’d make a phenomenal first officer.”

“Yes, well, I have to ask him first,” Viktor mumbles. 

“He’ll say yes or he’s not the genius we all think he is. What are your plans after that? Political missions? Escort services?”

“I was thinking more exploration missions?” Viktor says, turning his gaze to rove over Earth’s horizon. “You know, discovering new places, new civilizations. Boldly going and all that.”

“Katsuki is very scientifically inclined.”

“That’s one reason, but there are others!” Viktor promises. “I mean obviously I want him to be happy with our work but also––”

“You’re curious,” Madame Lilia finishes. “I know. I was a young captain once. You want to see what’s out there.”

“Isn’t that what Starfleet is about? There are so many worlds we haven’t seen yet, so many things we don’t know about the universe.”

“Well, you have my support. I’ll do everything I can to help you, and you already know that Yakov is wrapped around your little finger.”

“Thank you, Madame.”

“You can call me Lilia,” she says, and then as an afterthought: “Vitya.”

“Thank you, Lilia,” Viktor says. “My mom misses you a lot. Yakov, too.”

“Do they? Tell them to pick me up. I’ll trade putting up with Yakov’s shit and Katya’s dramatics over this desk job any day.”

They converse for a while, catching up on the things that Lilia’s missed since she left. Viktor takes a moment to mourn the childhood he could have had if Lilia was with them. He’d probably be a science officer, if he’s being honest. She’s absolutely fascinating, sharp as a dagger, quick as a whip, and surprisingly funny. 

Eventually she’s called away to take care of something. Viktor figures that being the head of Starfleet’s science division can’t be easy, but if there’s anyone who’s fit for the job, it’s definitely her. He stands in front of the viewing window for a while, watching ships depart and arrive, basking in the blue glow of the Earth beneath him and the bright flashes of ships shifting into warp drive. 

“Captain Nikiforov,” he says, testing it out. 

“That has a nice ring to it.”

Viktor startles at the sound of Yuuri’s voice. He turns around and there he is, looking flushed and exhausted with his dark hair plastered against his forehead. He nods towards the array of starships in front of them. “You want one of them?”

“Yes. Someday.”

“You’ll make a wonderful captain.” Yuuri smiles. “Ready to go?”

“Ready.” Viktor turns away from the window and starts walking back towards the hangar where they left Makkachin. “Hey, Yuuri? I have to ask you something later.”

“Later?” Yuuri wrinkles his nose. “You can’t ask me now?”

“Later, when we get home.”

It’s not until later, when Yuuri’s laughing in delight about being weightless in the jet once again, that Viktor realizes that he called the Earth his home.

 

vi.

In the lead up to his graduation from the Starfleet piloting program, Viktor does a lot of thinking.

He thinks about his plans after this. He’s already got a piloting job lined up on the starship Diva. From there, it’s only a matter of working his way up the ladder to captain. He thinks about spending the summer with his mom, learning as much about Siren piloting techniques as he can. He thinks about his and Chris’ apartment and the polite doorman and how he wants to buy his landlady a nice goodbye present because she always waters his plants when he’s away on vacation. He thinks about the computer science class that he’s  _ so glad _ he’s done with because his professor was actually a demon from another dimension.

He thinks about Yuuri.

Viktor used to think of them as a binary star system, orbiting each other in a galactic dance to shake the cosmos. As the days to Viktor’s graduation dwindle, he starts to think that maybe he’s wrong. Maybe they’re parallel lines. Maybe they orbit the same star, on the same path but never to touch, never to give into the intoxicating pull of gravity. Viktor thinks that maybe  _ he’s  _ orbiting Yuuri. Maybe it wasn’t meant to be. 

He thinks that he can be satisfied with that–– having Yuuri in his life  _ at all _ is a blessing, when you consider how vast the universe is, and how small the chances were of them ever actually meeting.

But Viktor feels the space between them acutely. Every inch is a lightyear. 

He’s known since the second he laid eyes on Yuuri that they’d have a love story written in stardust. It was inevitable. Now, Viktor thinks, maybe that cosmic love is platonic on Yuuri’s side. 

That’s okay. Viktor will be content to be Yuuri’s best friend, his future captain. He thinks if he could travel the stars with Yuuri as his first officer, then maybe he can forget about how he loves him so much he  _ aches _ .

 

The actual day of his graduation is mostly uneventful. He gives his valedictorian speech, receives his diploma, and cradles a sniffling Yuuri in his arms. Lilia even comes up to give him congratulations. 

“You okay?” Chris asks, sidling up to him. “You look like you’ve got your head in the clouds.”

Viktor snorts. “Not yet, but soon.”

“Your shuttle up leaves tonight?”

“Yeah, I had to move it because the captain of the Lovelace wanted to conduct one last interview.”

Chris hisses in sympathy. “Is that why you're over here all by yourself?”

“I was just thinking,” VIktor says. “I just… I feel like I left a lot of loose ends. It's weird, being done here.” 

“I mean, of course you feel like you're not done. You sped through the program and graduated early like the overachiever you are.”

“You did, too,” VIktor reminds him. 

“Yes, but I did it with more style,” Chris shoots back. “And anyway, that's not what you meant by loose ends, is it? Could it have anything to do with the fact that you still haven't made an actual move on Yuuri?”

“I wanted to tell him how I feel,” Viktor mumbles, “before I left.”

Chris smiles at him warmly, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. 

“There are other ways to tell someone you love them. And I think you’ve done a good enough job letting Yuuri know how loved he is.”

They both look over to where Yuuri is leaning against Phichit. Viktor thinks about weightless nights spent in his jet. He thinks about Yuuri warming a spot on his bed, textbooks cracked open and glasses balanced precariously on his nose. He thinks about the first time he calmed Yuuri down from a panic attack. 

“I hope I did,” Viktor gulps. “He gets so sad sometimes.”

“Don’t worry about him. He’s got a literal army of staff and fellow students that would follow him into battle. He’ll be okay. Just focus on getting us a ship, because I’ve been hearing rumors about an unexplored system in the Alpha Quadrant and I want a planet named after me.”

“Five years,” Viktor says, still looking in Yuuri’s direction. Yuuri notices and lifts a hand to wave, smiling warmly. “Five years. I promise.”

 

Something that Viktor forgets about is that the pull of gravity is irresistible. Every orbit around a star brings the planet just a little bit closer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ur girl came in clutch and managed to post today whoop!!
> 
> I'm [xyloophones](https://xyloophones.tumblr.com/) on tumblr if you have any questions and i'm [@_xylophones](https://twitter.com/_xylophones) on twitter (i'm starting to get the hang of it but i'm still new so pls be patient with me!)
> 
> Also! shout out to [Cookie](http://thecookiemonster77.tumblr.com/) for letting me use Mack the corgi and also letting me yell about my space children <33

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading! second chapter will be up in a week (? maybe) !!
> 
> i'm [xyloophones](https://xyloophones.tumblr.com/) on tumblr and [@_xylophones](https://twitter.com/_xylophones) on twitter if you wanna say hi!!  
> if you want to make a post on tumblr with anything for this au pls tag me @xyloophones or tag it with #0g because i'd love to see it!!


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